LPN (Later LPN to RN) or Straight to BSN?

102 Posts

Specializes in Cardiac, CVICU.

So I originally posted about LPN school earlier in another post, but some things have changed.

I'm a dietary aide at a hospital (I get to work on floor in ER, CCU, Main Floors, OB/GYN, etc.) and my mom was a pharmacy tech, so I have a lot of weight in my small town's medical field.

Pretty much in town (population of like 40,000) we have one vocational school (LPN), a good christian university (BSN), and a public university's extension center (LPN to RN/ADN). Our city is like a mini metro with people coming in from the surrounding villages, so not a lot of variety in universities in the surrounding area. The next biggest city (many colleges to choose from) is like an hour's drive away and some of my friends do a Tuesday/Thursday gen eds class at a community college there. That's way too far for me.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide between the LPN (later doing a LPN to RN elsewhere) at the vocational school or the BSN at the christian university. LPN costs 5K and the christian university is around 20K/year (living at home). I was originally planning on the LPN program, but this university really has taken me under there wing and they have a nice program. If I were to go to a state university far away it would be around 30K/year (estimated with all expenses take account for), so the christian university's costs aren't bad. Plus, I'm considering the army as a nurse with their AWESOME loan repayment program and continuing education scholarships.

Getting into either is not a big problem. I have an excellent resume, okay ACT scores (only take once), spectacular compass scores (for the LPN), and I'm good friends with a couple physicians, nurses, and a FNP that are board members at both schools. Being both smaller schools, they aren't too picky anyway.

Which should I go for? Money isn't as much of a huge factor as I was originally worrying about (the reason why I chose LPN first), so I am really leaning toward the university's BSN program. (:uhoh3:Don't get me wrong; I'm not rich whatsoever! :uhoh3: )